Teach Us To Pray | Deliver Us | Matthew 6:13 | Coleton Segars

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.

This is the word of the Lord.

Growing up, I grew up in Georgia, and uh my dad was a golden glove boxer as a kid and teenager and things like that.

And so, wow, when he when I was growing up, he was like, hey, you should never seek out a fight.

If you ever get in a fight and you instigated it, um you will get in a fight at home with me.

And I was like, oh, okay, I don't want to do that.

Um he goes, but but if you are ever in a situation where you cannot avoid being in a fight, like you've tried to walk away, you've tried to you know dissolve the situation or whatever, like you just cannot get away.

If you're in that space and you just have to fight, he's like, then you fight with everything that you have.

He's like, you make sure that person, whoever that is, you make sure that they never want to fight you again.

Even if you lose, make sure they remember fighting you enough to go.

When they think about doing it again, they're like, you know what?

I'm okay.

Like, that's you want to fight that hard about those things, win or lose.

And uh, I really love that.

Took it to heart, didn't get in many fights growing up as a kid.

Um, but I love that idea.

Um and the reason I bring that up is not because I want you know you to teach your kids that.

Maybe you're judging my dad right now, which that's on you, not him.

Um, but Jesus in this text, what he is telling us to do, and what he's giving us the access to do is to fight.

He is telling us to fight, not against people, but he is teaching us to fight against the spiritual war and to fight back against spiritual beings and spiritual evil and spiritual darkness.

And so this prayer is a prayer of spiritual warfare, asking God to help you to fight, to be able to fight, and then to fight for you.

Not only to uh the the literal prayer, the idea is it's not God, don't tempt me, God doesn't tempt us, we know that from the scriptures.

Uh it's not God, don't test me.

Testing from the Lord is actually something he does to his children, it proves that we are his children.

The prayer is let me not, God, be led into temptation by the evil one.

There's a tempter out there, there's a liar from the beginning.

Something is happening, let me not be led into temptation by the evil one and deliver us from the evil one.

And so it is a prayer of asking God to help you and to fight for you, and it is the way that we also fight.

And so, again, talking about demons and talking about the devil can sound strange, it can sound outdated.

Um and and if that's where you're coming from, uh I I don't we can talk about evil.

I have a book that I'd love you to read called The Death of Satan, uh, written by this guy named Andrew Del Monco uh back in 1995, talking about how uh Americans have kind of deleted Satan from the world, but then have no real explanation for all the evil in the world.

And so you can read that book, The Death of Satan.

Um but if you're a Jesus following Christian, you're just someone that's you're coming to church.

There's no doubt, and there can be no doubt, that whether we struggle to believe in a spiritual war or not, or spiritual beings or not, it is true that clearly Jesus believed that this was real.

He's not just saying this and trying to, like, I don't know, how do I round out this prayer?

Let's talk about demons.

Like he's he's he's actually teaching us to pray, and he references this as one of the most specific things that we should do.

He doesn't say that this part, this part of the prayer is only for a particular time period.

Like, hey, really, only pray this right now in the first century.

He doesn't say that, doesn't say it's only for the strong spiritual beings in the world or the strong heroes of the faith.

It's like this is a prayer for regular people teaching them to pray that they should regularly practice praying against and fighting against spiritual darkness.

And so when Jesus is asked, will you please teach me something about prayer?

Will you please teach us to pray the way that you pray, Jesus?

Teach us to pray the way that you pray.

This is what he says.

He gives us six things.

And so go to the next slide here.

When he these are the six things.

He's like, you need to pray.

Father, remember who you're talking to.

He's your father.

Should hallow his name and worship and remind you what's possible with him as you as you worship him.

Should pray that his kingdom and will be done.

He invites us to ask God to display his power and goodness on the earth.

And he we pray for our needs, give us our daily bread.

He invites us to ask God to meet our needs, forgive us our debts, invites us to confess our sins and get forgiveness.

And then he says, number six is deliver us from evil.

You need daily bread, you need you have needs to be met, you also have evil to be delivered from.

And so he invites us to fight against spiritual enemies.

And so this is a huge part of what it means to actually pray.

Some of your Bibles probably have uh this line here, for yours is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever and ever.

Amen.

That is not original to what Jesus said.

It's fine that it's in the Bible and it's fine to pray it.

The early church just added this because they were trying to round out the prayer.

It's kind of odd to end it on and deliver me from the evil one.

To end our prayer on Satan felt strange, and so they added this doxology to give the kingdom and the power and the glory and say, this is yours forever.

And it's true, his is the God's it is God's kingdom, it is his power, and it is his glory.

But Jesus actually ends this prayer, this teaching on prayer, he ends it on fighting against spiritual evil in the world.

And so I just don't want us to miss the fact that when Jesus is teaching us to pray, he's asked, give us your best stuff on prayer.

One of the things that he gives us is like, you have to know that this is real.

You need to live in the reality.

There is a spiritual war going on, that you will be caught up in it.

This is the way that you fight, this is a way of fighting back.

And so Jesus is inviting us in this particular petition to fight against the evil one and his works that are happening in the world.

And he invites us to do that through prayer.

And so, what I want to do is give you three whys.

Why is he asking us to do this?

He is telling us to do this, but why is he actually asking us to pray in this way?

What should it teach us about prayer and about life and about his kingdom and his world?

Why is he asking us to do this?

And so the first, Jesus knows, and he wants us to pray this because Jesus knows this is what is really wrong in the world.

The spiritual war that's being waged is what is actually really wrong in the world.

Spiritual evil is the problem and the most uh important involved problem that there is in the world.

This is why when Jesus comes to earth, he came not only, he didn't, it's not, he didn't come to like address a nation, he didn't come to fix a people, he didn't come to uh, you know, diminish or to crush a people group or something like that.

It says that he came to deal with sin, he came to deal with evil itself.

John says in his epistle, he says that the reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.

Like, why did Jesus come?

Like, he this is his main point.

I would like to destroy the works of the devil.

Why'd you leave heaven and come to earth?

What is the incarnation about?

What is the cross about?

What is the resurrection about?

What is forgiveness of sin about?

He's like, I am trying to undo and destroy what the devil has begun in the world.

I want to save people from that.

I want to destroy the works of the devil.

That is his purpose for showing up and his purpose for doing those things.

That's why he came.

Not to destroy the Romans, not to destroy sinners, not to condemn people.

That is not why he came.

He came to save people from their sin.

And sin is rebellion against God, which was initiated by Satan, and so Jesus came to address that problem.

If you look at Jesus' ministry on earth, you see that a third of his ministry was actually driving out spiritual evil and dealing with spiritual evil.

Third of his ministry was teaching, a third of his ministry was healing, and a third of his ministry was dealing with evil.

And then he teaches his disciples and gives them authority, like, hey, as you go and you teach and you heal, make sure you also drive out demons in the world.

Make sure that you actually deliver people from the evil that they're experiencing.

And this is why he gave his disciples the authority to do that.

This is why Jesus says that to people, when we're dealing with people, turn the other cheek.

And when you're dealing with people, love your enemies and forgive them and pray for them.

When you're dealing with people, turn the other cheek, forgive them, pray for them, love your enemies as you do your neighbors.

But when you're dealing with spiritual evil, crush it, drive it out, fight against it.

Don't fight against the people, because that's not your actual issue that you're dealing with.

You love your enemies, but the actual enemy in the world, you pray against it and you fight against it.

Jesus' ministry was to deliver people from the evil one and the brokenness that Satan had brought into the world.

To him, his understanding of the world is like that's the actual issue in the world.

Not all the other things that are taking place.

That is the biggest issue in the world.

The thing behind the thing, pulling the strings, doing the stuff.

It is the spiritual evil in the world.

And you get a glimpse of this in Daniel 10, which is Daniel is this prophet, and he's in uh exile under Cyrus, the king of Persia, and he's praying, and he gets this vision from God about a great war that's coming.

And it affects him so much that he doesn't fully understand it, so he begins to pray and he begins to fast.

And he fasts from food and lotions because that was how they like clean cleaned themselves and fasted from strong drink and things like that.

And he did that for three weeks.

Just no no food, no, no choice food, no strong drink, for three weeks, praying and fasting from all of these different things, asking the Lord, please tell me, please tell me, please tell me what this is.

And eventually an answer comes, but it's three weeks later, it's after this three-week fast.

It says this, now you can go to the next slide.

In verse 4, it says, On the 24th day of the first month, I, Daniel, looked up, and there before me was a man dressed in linen with a belt of fine gold around his waist, his body was like topaz, his face like lightning, his eyes like flaming torches, and his arms and legs like the gleam of burnished bronze, and his voice was like the sound of a multitude.

And he said, I have been sent to you.

Don't be afraid, Daniel.

Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding, your words were heard in heaven, and I have come in response to them.

But the prince of Persia, uh the prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me for twenty-one days.

Then Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me because I was detained there with the king of Persia.

Now I have come to explain to you what will happen to your people in the future, for the vision concerns a time yet to come.

Soon I will return and fight against the Prince of Persia.

And so you have this space with Daniel.

He's praying, and for three he and someone was sent from the heavenly realm to Daniel to explain.

Someone whose eyes are like, whose face is like lightning and his eyes are like flaming torches.

Someone was sent to him the first day that his he prayed.

God heard your prayer and sent me.

But for three weeks I was detained fighting against what they call the prince of Persia.

And J.A.

Carson in his commentary explains what princes and what this what's it referencing in this particular time period.

He says, spiritual beings are associated with nation states.

Michael, your prince, in verse 21, fights for God's people, while the prince of Persia is a spiritual being, a demonic power, who fights for the Persian Empire.

And since the Prince of Persia could have blocked the arrival of the heavenly figure, and since the heavenly figure requires Michael's help to get to Daniel, the heavenly figure speaking is not God himself, but it's a powerful angel.

And so prince was a term that he used to describe spiritual beings in that day.

This is why, if you remember in the Gospels, Jesus is driving out demons, and then the Pharisees say, it's by the prince of demons that Jesus drives out these demons.

Now that's not true, but that's how they referred to spiritual evil and spiritual beings and spiritual darkness, describing demonic forces in those days.

And so in this account, the angel is sent day one, but there's a battle taking place behind the scenes that Daniel has no idea about.

He just thinks that God's not answering his prayer.

Like I'm fasting for three weeks, waiting on this thing.

Why aren't you answering my prayer?

And the angel's like, I was sent day one.

God heard your prayer day one, but there is a battle that you don't understand that's happening.

And I was detained for three weeks.

Thank you for continuing to pray.

Thank you for continuing to seek God because I'm here now.

One of the commentators, uh, Dr.

Sinclair says, Daniel, in this process, that he was learning that the ultimate power struggle was fought out in a realm of which most people know nothing.

It does not lie between Washington and Moscow.

Its central point is not to be found in the Middle East.

Indeed, the world crisis we see is actually reflections of an older, more ruthless, perpetual conflict, namely that between the city of God with its angelic host and the Dominion of Darkness, which seeks to turn the direction of all history against God and his people.

Daniel is learning.

There is a spiritual war being waged behind the scenes that you don't even see.

And the Prince of Persia has power in this particular nation in order to do something.

And honestly, the Prince of Persia still has power.

The Persian Empire today is called Iran.

It's still, the Prince of Persia is still producing evil in that space.

Still has work in that space.

And so the enemy is still at work.

And so Jesus is inviting us to go, like, look, I know that you might think that it's the government or it's this or it's that or it's that person, or it's just the angry lady on the street, or your boss, or whoever.

Like, there are things behind the things.

And I need you to understand that the real war that is being waged is actually somewhere beyond your visible sight, but it is real and it's happening.

And this is why Paul would say to the church in Ephesus, he's like, Look, your struggle, our struggle is not against flesh and blood.

It's not against me and you.

But it is against the rulers of the dark world, the authorities of the dark world, the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

That is where our struggle actually is.

Our real struggle is not against other people, other religions, other political parties, other worldviews or lifestyles.

Our real struggle is against something that is spiritually dark and spiritually evil that can affect and infect and actually be a part of shaping things that happen in the world.

And they want to wreak havoc and wreak chaos and do things.

And Jesus is like, I'm inviting you to pray this because I know you will be lost in all these other problems that you're facing that you think this is the real issue.

And it's like, it's not, it's behind that.

There's something else taking place here, and you need to know that.

And so he's inviting us to be a part of this battle because he knows your real issue is actually one that's fought in the spiritual realm, not one that's fought here in flesh and blood.

And so that's why he invites us to pray that.

Number two, Jesus knows and invites us to pray this because he knows that we will inevitably be affected and experience spiritual conflict.

This is not, no one is exempt from this.

You will experience spiritual conflict, and all of you already have, in some form or fashion, whether you're aware of it or not, all of us have already experienced and been affected by spiritual conflict and spiritual warfare.

All of us have.

Now, some of us go way too far in everything, spiritual warfare.

I stub my toe.

Spiritual warfare.

No, it's not.

Your toe's fine.

But like there are things that are happening in the world.

No one is exempt from this.

And some people be like, well, I don't even believe in Jesus, I don't even believe in any of this.

I'm gonna read you a passage real fast.

Of course, you don't believe in any of this.

This is what Paul says that the God of this age, not our God, but the God of this age, has blinded the minds of unbelievers.

He's blinded them so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ.

They can't see the beauty of what Jesus has come to do, that he literally bled for them, that he loved them enough to bleed and die and be broken over their sin.

He did nothing wrong, we've done everything wrong, and he's like, let me take the hit, not you.

They don't see the beauty of that sacrifice.

Why?

And it's like, because the God of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers.

They cannot see that.

Jesus came so that no one could perish, but there's an enemy that actually wants people to perish.

Jesus came to forgive you of your sin, and there's an enemy that does not want you to be forgiven of your sin.

Jesus came not to condemn people, but there's an enemy that actually wants you to be condemned over your sin.

This is real, and this is something that Jesus is like, you will be affected by this.

And as unbelievers in your family and in mine, like they are still affected by this.

You could talk to them, and it is like the lights aren't on.

And it's not that they're stupid, they're brilliant.

And it's like, what is it?

The God of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers.

They're dealing with a spiritual war.

The same is true, it's just different for believers.

When you come to faith in Jesus, which is why whenever I'm baptizing somebody or somebody wants to come to faith in Jesus or get baptized, sometimes they're like, I just can't wait for all my problems to go away.

I was like, I don't think you fully understand salvation or what it means to follow Jesus because that's not true.

You're gonna follow someone that was crucified and did nothing wrong.

So you're gonna follow a crucified person who tells you to also take up your cross and be crucified with him.

And so the enemy doesn't care that you um are now in Jesus' camp and now he has to leave you alone.

He actually cares a lot about the fact that you chose Jesus and he wants to do everything in his power to try and steal you back and to make life a living hell for you, so that you think, I made this decision to follow Jesus.

Shouldn't life be easier?

And then it's not easier, and you're like, ah, maybe this whole God thing doesn't work.

Maybe none of this is real.

And it's like there's an enemy at play in your mind behind the scenes seeking to make you think that and believe that.

This is why Peter, when he's writing two Christians, he's writing two Christians, not to unbelie non non-believers, he is writing two people who follow Jesus, he's saying, look, you need to be alert, you need to be sober-minded.

Your enemy, there's an enemy, the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.

This is real for you.

This is still available, it's still out there, it's still something that's happening.

He's not saying that, like, well, we don't see any lions around.

It's like it's not that, it's something that you can't see.

But it's still true that the enemy is looking for someone to devour.

Charles Spurgeon says this.

He says, After a man or any person, after a person is converted to Jesus and has received forgiveness of sins, soon he will be tempted by the devil.

For Satan cannot bear to lose his subjects.

And when Satan sees someone cross the border and escape out of his hand, he gathers up all his forces and exercises all his cunning that he may slay him at once.

Like being a follower of Jesus, a believer in Jesus, does not make us exempt from spiritual warfare.

It actually qualifies us to experience those things.

Because if there's an enemy out there that knows that there's that now other people are going to be fighting against him, he's gonna do everything he can to actually crush and try and take those things away.

Again, this is one of the reasons why Paul wrote to the church in Ephesus.

He was trying to teach them about spiritual conflict.

He was saying, like, this is going to be your regular experience.

This is what he says in Ephesians 6.

He says, Finally, to this church, finally.

It's the last thing, similar to the last thing that Jesus tells us to pray, this is how Paul basically concludes his letter to the church at Ephesus.

Be strong in the Lord and mighty in his power.

Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes.

Those are real.

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against rulers, against authorities, powers of this dark world, and the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

Therefore, put on the full armor of God so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground.

And Jesus just knows we're going to be affected by this.

And so we need to pray this.

This is something that's not like, ah, that's that's that's for the spiritually mature.

That's like every single person in the world.

The real, the longest and oldest battle that is happening in the world is this one.

Not the current war wars that we're dealing with, not World War II, not World War I, or whatever.

The longest running battle in the history is this one.

And he's just saying, you're gonna get caught up in this.

You're gonna have shrapnel is gonna happen.

You're gonna be caught between the crossfire of this.

This is going to take place in your midst.

It's gonna have something to do in your life.

Involvement in spiritual conflict is not optional.

It will be something that you actually experience.

And we need to know that.

And in the New Testament, if you see like how the enemy attacks people, this is, I mean, Jesus is calling us to pray for this thing, to pray against the attacks of how the enemy seeks to attack.

And so in the New Testament, just a handful of things, like here's what the enemy does to attack.

He attacks by tempting us to sin.

He attacks people through mental illness and like confusion and messing with their minds and lying to them and getting in their heads.

He attacks people through making them blind, mute, crippled, or other illnesses.

The enemy attacks people through self-harm and causing them to harm themselves.

The enemy attacks children of parents.

Like, why'd you attack my kid?

Because they are susceptible.

He attacks by causing us to doubt and seeks to get us to hinder the will of God.

He attacks by seeking to kill people.

He throws the boy into the in into the water to try and drown him.

He throws him also into the fire to try and burn him alive.

He's trying to take an image bearer's life before his life is supposed to be given up.

He's trying to kill people before their time.

That's what the enemy is doing.

He attacks marriages, he attacks people through disunity and causing division.

What Jesus says about the enemy is like there is a thief that comes to steal and kill and destroy.

And so Jesus wants a regular practice to be this way of like, make sure you practice this regularly as well.

Pray against the spiritual forces, pray against the spiritual darkness, pray against the spiritual evil that is in the world, even if you don't see it.

Sometimes we don't see our own needs, we don't see our own sins, but we still pray, give me daily bread and give me forgiveness for my sin.

And he's like, sometimes you don't see the spiritual war that's waging.

That's fine, but make this a regular part of your daily life.

It is real, and it is going to be something that affects you and your people and the world around you.

And so pray this.

What he wants to do is steal, kill, and destroy.

Anything that God deems good, anything that you love in your life that is from God, he wants to.

Steal that thing from you, kill it, or destroy it.

Like he wants it to die.

And so all of your joy, all of your peace, your marriage, which is a union that God created, like your children and the family unit that he's put together, the enemy is looking at the things that God loves about you and is going, I will take direct aim at the things that he loves because I hate him.

And I'm gonna attack those things.

And so we need to make it a regular practice to pray against those things.

That's what Jesus is saying.

You will be affected by it.

Therefore, pray this thing.

And then finally, Jesus teaches us to pray this because Jesus wants us to fight.

He wants us to fight.

And prayer is one of the ways that we fight.

I love that idea that when we're dealing with the spiritual battle, Jesus wasn't like, hey, I got this, I'll just take it from here.

Honestly, you'll probably do more damage than good.

Why don't you just back out?

And he's like, no, I want you to be in this fight.

You have purpose in this thing.

And actually, if you read Revelation, you see that actually taking shape.

Jesus is fighting with the saints.

We overcome by the power of the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony.

Like that we he wants us to be in that fight.

He doesn't want us to fight other people, which is what we spend our time doing, which again is another attack of the enemy.

We end up fighting other people and we stop fighting the actual war that's actually taking place.

Get off your message boards and social media and fighting online.

That's not where the fight actually is.

And you're not going to accomplish anything by doing that.

He's like, I do want you to fight.

I just don't want you to do that on Facebook.

I don't want you to do that on Instagram.

Stop sending reels to people to tell them my way is right and your way is wrong.

That's not how we fight.

And that's not how he wants you to fight.

He's like, but I do actually want you to press into this thing, and the way that you do that is by praying.

That is one way of fighting.

Paul says in 2 Corinthians, he says, For though we live in this world, we do not wage war as the world does.

And just to challenge you, do you wage war the way the world does?

With your family and with your friends or your co-workers or whoever is just disagreeing with your political stance or anything like that, do you fight the way that non-believers fight?

Do you use the exact same tactics?

Because you have something in you that's placed in there by God to want to fight for truth.

Like you want to do that thing.

The issue is we get lost fighting a battle that's like that's not the actual battle.

Like you're over here fighting and doing something, and you really should be over here fighting this way.

You're fighting incorrectly.

For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does.

The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world.

On the contrary, the weapons we have have divine power to demolish strongholds.

Those are stronger weapons.

You want to tear things down, that's God given.

You want to rip down strongholds, that's God given.

It's just you're fighting with a non-God-given way of fighting.

It won't work.

Your debate isn't gonna make somebody eventually go, like, oh my gosh, this is amazing.

I totally you're totally right.

I love being wrong, and I love that you're being so arrogant about being right.

This is so good.

It's never gonna work.

Real weapons that God is trying to give us have the power to demolish strongholds in nations, strongholds in cities, strongholds in people's lives, strongholds in your kids' lives, real power to fight.

Trying to explain to your kid while their particular lifestyle isn't the right way and why and showing them every single Bible verse that you have in the world probably is going to do as much.

Like, pray for them.

There's this uh guy I really like in New York's pastor, and he didn't used to be obviously a pastor, when he was like 16, 17, 18, he describes himself as a happy pagan, which I was like, hey, me too, uh, for most of my life.

And he said that his dad would lay his clothes, uh, his clothes out on the floor, uh, his son's clothes out on the floor when his kid was off doing God knows what, just lay his clothes out on the floor, and he would pray, deliver him from evil.

Whenever he wears this shirt again, deliver him from evil.

Whenever he wears these pants, wherever these these shoes take him next, deliver him from evil.

Like he was just going after it, seeking to demolish strongholds in his son's life.

And now his son is one of the greatest communicators and pastors and preachers of all time.

Like, he broke a stronghold in his son's life and he prayed it down.

He didn't argue against it or just capitulate and say, you know what, your lifestyle's fine.

He prayed and he demolished a stronghold.

Though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does.

Dr.

Carson says Christians can wage a successful campaign in the spiritual realm.

We can wage a successful campaign in the spiritual realm only when they abandon human resources and totally rely on spiritual weapons, such as the Spirit's power, scripture, faith, and prayer.

These are the very effective, these are very effective in God's service for demolishing strongholds, where evil is entrenched and from which the gospel is attacked, where evil is entrenched and the stronghold from the top of the gospel is attacked from on top.

Like, those are the things that have power to demolish the strongholds.

When the disciples are struggling to drive out a demon, I think it's in Mark 5, they're struggling to drive out a demon, and they look to Jesus like, why couldn't we drive it out?

He's like, You chose to fight with human ways.

You did not pray.

Prayer has power to drive out darkness that you cannot, you're bumping up against something you do not have power in and of yourself to explain away or to figure out how to deal with.

You need to pray those things.

These kinds, that type of darkness, that type of evil only comes out by prayer.

Which is why the enemy tries to get us to do anything else but pray.

Talk to them a lot, do other things, go to a ton of Bible studies, read a bunch of books on the problem that your kid or your family, your marriage, or whatever is facing, just anything but pray.

And it's like you have this, and Jesus is like, the thing that drives this out is prayer.

It has power.

This kind only comes out by prayer.

And Jesus is telling us this.

Why is he saying, like, you have six things, you have pick the six things that you should teach us to pray?

And he's like, make sure you pray about spiritual evil.

Make sure you pray against it.

Prayer has power.

And we need to see prayer not only as a way of getting our needs met, but we need to see it as a way of battling, of fighting.

Martin Luther, who was famous for this, he says, we must all practice violence.

Come on.

And remember that he who prays is fighting against the devil in the flesh.

Satan is opposed to the church, and the best thing we can do, therefore, is to put our fist together and pray.

I love that.

Martin Luther was a different kind of bro.

He probably said that and then slammed back a pint.

He's just my kind of guy.

Origen was one of the early church fathers, a theologian, he said this.

He said, Christians are more effective at bringing peace and security because they take up the whole armor of God.

While others fight, Christians pray.

By their prayers, the believers destroy all demons which stir up wars.

They destroy all that violate oaths and disturb the peace.

Christians are a very special army of piety.

Through their intercession to God, spiritual warfare leads to the destruction of everything which is hostile to those who act rightly.

I love that idea.

While others fight, Christians pray.

And we're entering into a space where I hope we're coming back to this, but like we're entering into the space where like the church needs to get back to fighting the ways that the scriptures tell them to fight, and not the way that the government tells them to fight, or not the way that Twitter tells them to fight, or I don't even know what it's called, X, I don't know what it's called anymore.

Like, we need to get back to the ways that our king tells us to fight.

Because I think of the things that we long to experience, and Jesus is just offering this to us and going, there are things that you long to see your kids delivered from evil.

You see it, what it's raging in their hearts.

You long for your marriage to actually be free from some of the things that you're fighting in.

It's like, so pray, deliver me from evil.

You long to be free from some of the sin and darkness and addiction that's been gripped by you.

That is a work of, that is not a work of the kingdom, that is a work of the enemy.

And Jesus came to destroy the works of the enemy.

And so he's just giving us this prayer and going, make sure this is a part of your regular life.

This is how you fight, and I want you to know how to fight.

But not with the ways of the world, with the ways of of my kingdom that actually have the power to do the things that we want to see done.

And so he invites us to do those things.

And so, what should be our response?

Those are the three.

He wants us to fight because he's like, that's the real war, you will be affected by it, and I want you to fight in it.

And I want you to fight back, and that's how that's how you fight.

So, what should we do?

A couple of things.

In this, I think one of the things that's just really important is we need to live with this reality in mind and don't be afraid.

Um, I don't know if if talking about this kind of stuff makes you fearful or anything like that.

It shouldn't make you fearful.

We are in Christ, we have authority in Christ.

If we are truly in Christ, we are seated with him in the heavenlies, and we have a greater spirit who lives in us than he who is in the world.

And so there is actually authority that we have that we do not need to be afraid of these things.

But we do need to live in the reality that these things exist.

We don't have this quote, but C.S.

Lewis says there are two errors that people can fall into about the demonic.

And one is like just acting like it doesn't exist, and the other one is focusing on it so much that we become afraid of it and kind of obsessed with it.

He goes, either of those is bad.

It doesn't exist or it exists so much I'm terrified.

Bad.

But an acknowledgement of it, the reality of it, and the ability to know that something is behind the scenes pulling the strings.

That something in your marriage could be, that something could be attacking your marriage than just my husband is stupid.

Maybe there's something better than that, something bigger than that actually taking place.

Maybe there's something happening in your kids' life rather than they're just going through puberty.

Maybe there's something happening in the world that's just, well, it's just a stupid president or a stupid government or something else is happening.

There are things in the world that are behind the things that are actually the things that we see in the world.

And so we need to know that, but you don't need to be afraid.

Greater is he who lives in you.

The Holy Spirit is much more powerful, much more strong than any spirit in this world.

And so we need to live in the reality of that.

The second is we need to pray for discernment to notice spiritual conflict.

Pray for discernment.

If you're wondering, if like, is this spiritual conflict, or if you just want to see more of it and be more mindful of it, I would ask the Lord, give me eyes to see that.

Not every here's what I don't get weird about spiritual warfare and start calling everything spiritual warfare.

Not everything is spiritual warfare.

I've said that earlier.

Not every illness is spiritual warfare, not every mental illness is a demon.

Not uh, you know, just all the different things that people deal with in the world.

Uh, it wasn't like back in the day we called every mental illness demons, but now we have medicine for that.

Like, no, no, no, there are demons and there are mental illnesses with imbalances and things that happen.

And so not everything is spiritual conflict, but there is spiritual conflict, and so you should pray for discernment in those things.

Not every spiritual conflict is a uh not every conflict is a spiritual conflict.

That's not biblical.

Timothy, um, when he was uh pastoring in Ephesus, Paul the apostle writes to him and he's dealing with a stomach issue, and Paul doesn't say, call the elders, have them drive that demon out of you with your stomach issues.

Like that's not, he doesn't say that.

He's like, drink a little wine, it'll help settle your stomach.

James says that um every temptation isn't something given to us by the enemy.

Like we're dragged off by our own desires that then turn into temptation, that then when they conceive, they actually turn into sin, and then then long enough they give full birth and they give full birth to death.

And so it's not like every every temptation I have is a spiritual conflict or a spiritual enemy that's attacking me.

You have the flesh in you.

You are dragged away by our own desires, and those things can be perverted, but we have that in us.

And so to say, like every time I'm tempted, Satan is right here, some demon's right here, is like, man, you need to deal with your flesh, crucify the flesh is what the scriptures say.

And so not every conflict is one that is a spiritual one that you're actually dealing with, a demon or anything like that.

So you should pray for discernment about those things.

Third, you need to read and know the scriptures.

Read and know the scriptures.

When Jesus was tempted and attacked by the enemy and by Satan, nearly every word that he said was scripture.

Not every word that he said, but nearly every word that he said was him quoting scripture and he was fighting.

That's why Paul says that God's word is a sword, is a double-edged sword.

And you can fight against those things.

And you do that by reading this word.

We need to know God's word and use God's word as a weapon against to resist the devil.

James says, resist the devil and he will flee from you.

Resist him.

The reality of it is real.

You need to resist.

You say, submit to God, but resist the devil and he will flee from you.

And one of the ways that we resist is through the power of his word, knowing it, being able to wield it, being able at any moment to be able to pull that out and actually use that as a weapon.

And then we need to pray.

Pray this prayer.

Jesus said, certain kinds of evil can only be driven out by prayer.

And so we need to pray and make this a regular part of our lives with him.

Praying.

Let me not be led into temptation today.

I know the temptations that are headed my way.

I know when I enter into this space or this time of day or this whatever, I know, let me not be led into temptation today.

Deliver me from the evil one.

Deliver my son from the evil one.

Deliver my wife from the evil one.

Deliver our marriage from the evil one.

The work that he is seeking to do that you know about that I can't see and I don't know, deliver me from that thing.

Samuel Chadwick says it takes us long to learn that prayer is more important than organization.

It's more powerful than armies, more influential than wealth, and mightier than all learning.

Satan dreads nothing but prayer.

And his one concern is to keep the saints from praying.

He fears nothing from prayerless studies, prayerless work, prayerless religion.

He laughs at our toil and he mocks our wisdom, but he trembles when we pray.

He trembles when we pray.

Because at this point, it's not like our prayers are powerful, but we turn our attention and we turn our energy and we turn our hope and our help to someone who actually has all the power.

And so he trembles because he trembles at God's strength and God's power and how willing God is to actually help those who call out for help.

And so we need to pray.

The enemy is seeking to devour, looking for someone to devour.

So you need to pray against those things.

Pray for your family.

If you're dealing with something with your kids, do what John's dad did, praying over his clothes.

Deliver my kid from evil.

You just see things in the world.

You can just pray that prayer.

Pray those things consistently.

Look around and look at the brokenness in the world and don't blame people.

Your struggle is not against flesh and blood.

Your struggle is against something that's trying to take captive the stuff that's good and pervert it and make it bad.

And trying to wreak as much chaos as possible.

And so pray it for your family, your children, your friends, your office, your church.

Please pray it for our church.

Pray for your community, your the governments, pray it for Memphis.

Like there are strongholds in our city.

But there's something that's happening in Memphis that it doesn't happen in other cities.

I was like, what is that?

Deliver us from the evil one.

Tear down the strongholds in Memphis.

Those things are real, whether you see them or not.

Pray it for Memphis.

Deliver us from evil.

Alright, and then last, we need to persevere.

If you are a follower of Jesus, that doesn't exempt you from experiencing spiritual warfare, it qualifies you.

And so God wants to use you mightily if you are a part of his kingdom.

He wants to use you mightily, and the enemy will attack you.

The attacks and the spiritual conflict and the things that you're experiencing in doing things for God normally lead people to go, I must be outside of God's will.

And it's like, no, the spiritual attack that you're experiencing may be in fact proving that you are inside of God's will because the enemy doesn't want you there.

And so you need to persevere in the midst of that.

And when you're experiencing that thing, you need to go to other brothers and sisters in your church community, the people that you trust, and go, hold me up.

I'm dealing with a war and a battle that is bigger than what I can constantly take on myself.

I need somebody else to bear this burden with me.

Would you do that?

And so we need to persevere under trial and persevere under those things.

It's not evidence of the fact that you're doing something wrong.

Job was doing things right, and the enemy was like, let's attack him.

Not because he's doing things wrong, but because he's like, he's held up in God's sight.

And so we need to persevere.

I want to close with this.

During World War II, I love World War II.

Um, or at least the history of it, not the process of it.

During World War II on March 19th, 1945, two months before Germany surrendered, Hitler knew it was over.

And instead of surrendering, because he knew it was over, he issued what was called the Nero Decree.

The Nero Decree was an order to destroy his own country, all its railways, bridges, factories, power plants, communication networks, trying to keep the Allies from being able to use any of those things.

If homes were destroyed, so be it.

If civilians died, so be it.

Mass destroyed.

I know I'm gonna lose.

Destroy it all.

And in the process, he did kill millions, or not millions, many German civilians in the country that he claimed to love.

He destroyed most of it.

He knew he had lost, and instead of giving up, he chose to just scorch earth the thing and do as much damage as he could on the way out.

I think it's such a perfect example of the war that we live in spiritually.

Jesus on the cross defeated sin, Satan, death, and hell.

The war is not completely over, but like the surrender is inevitable.

It's imminent.

Jesus has won.

He has conquered that thing.

But until that final day comes that Revelation speaks of, until that happens, Satan is going to Nero decree this thing.

He's going to scorch earth this thing.

He is trying to do as much damage and do as much chaos and as much havoc as he possibly can in the lives of people.

And so what Jesus is doing here is not just trying to round out a prayer.

He's going, look, you don't see it.

But if you trust me, trust me.

I'm going to teach you to pray against something that you don't even have eyes to see.

There's something that's happening in the world behind the scenes that is the biggest issue that you'll actually face.

And so I'm going to teach you to pray.

Let me not be led into temptation and deliver me from the evil one.

He wants us to experience victory in those ways, and he wants to see his kingdom advance over the dominion of darkness as it on its way out tries to rip and shred every single thing that he can.

And so we who are filled with his spirit, who have access to the Father and His power because of what Jesus has done, Jesus is inviting us to step before the throne of grace where all the power in the universe exists and ask him to do work that you can't do on your own.

Ask him to deliver this world from evil.

Ask him to deliver your family from evil.

Make it a regular practice to pray against spiritual conflict.

Make it a regular practice to combat the spiritual enemies, even though the ones we don't see.

Let's close by praying this together.

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.

Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.